“Thousands of websites, from major sites like the social news website Reddit, the Internet Archive’s main site, and the English-language version of Wikipedia, to small personal WordPress blogs, have ‘gone dark’ today as part of a coordinated protest against the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), currently in committee in the House, and the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), scheduled for a Senate vote on January 24. Among the sites taking part are those of Digital Public Library of America and the Syracuse University iSchool, as well as several popular blogs in the library world.
“The legislation primarily targets copyright infringement by foreign websites, but enforcement provisions, which have included website blocking provisions, have drawn fire from critics. The protesting sites generally consist of a single page explaining the protest, containing links for more information about the legislation. (A list of some announced sites that are participating is here.)
“The website of the Digital Public Library of America has a statement saying that the legislation ‘would force libraries to censor access to [written, recorded, and visual] culture, expose librarians to criminal penalties for doing their jobs, and threaten the network on which the future Digital Public Library of America would rely.’”
From David Rapp’s post on The Digital Shift, DPLA, Syracuse, Library Blogs Take Part in SOPA/PIPA Protest